Friday, August 28, 2015

The month of August marks the sixteenth month of our international online cooking group, The Cottage Cooking Club. As a group, recipe by recipe, we are cooking and learning our way through a wonderful vegetable cookbook written in 2011 by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, entitled „River Cottage Everyday Veg".

The Cottage Cooking Club is meant to be a project aimed at incorporating more vegetable dishes into our everyday cooking, learning about less known, forgotten or heritage vegetables, trying out new ways to prepare tasty and healthy dishes, and sharing them with family and friends.

One of the declared aims of our cooking group is to make a decided effort to use as much regional, organic and also seasonal produce as is reasonably possible.

Since I cooked nine of the ten August recipes, I will write about each dish in the order in which I prepared them.

My first recipe for this late summer post was the colorful and very inviting Summer spelt salad (page 72), from the chapter "Hearty Salads“, this recipe is a variation of the Spelt salad with squash and fennel that we prepared back in January 2015 - I have made that recipe many times since then (you can take a look here).

Our kids are drawn to these kinds of salads, it seems that I can never make enough of them. As usual, I used a medium-size pearl barley here instead of the pearled spelt. Pale brown in color and resembling wheat berries, barley is believed to be the oldest cultivated cereal. And it is extremely versatile. Around here, we love adding pearl barley to soups and stews but by now, I believe our family is addicted to pearl barley salads with grilled vegetables and lots and lots of fresh herbs.

To make a long story short, what is not to like about this beautiful salad with grilled cubes of aubergine, yellow summer squash, zucchini, fresh peas and French beans, with tons of added Italian parsley, green as well as purple basil and chives. Definitely my kind of recipe that leaves a lot of room for personal and seasonal interpretation.

The second recipe that I prepared was Broad (French) beans with herbed goat´s cheese (page 316) from the chapter „Mezze & Tapas“. Always game for trying out some new variations of preparing a topping for all kinds of breads that we enjoy, I was quite sure that we would love this recipe and we did.

The first time I made this I used broad beans, and piled the cheesy, herby bean mixture on top of toasted, garlic-rubbed country bread. The second time I made this recipe I could not find any more fresh broad beans for the life of me and used French beans instead. I was torn at first between adding peas or French green beans and decided to go with the later. I chopped up the beans after blanching them to make them more convenient to eat and serve. So, the second time around, I ended up serving this as a late summer appetizer on mini rounds of lovely, dark and sweet German Pumpernickel - a little bit 70´s style.

I must admit to being rather partial to the contrast of flavors here. The tangy fresh goat´s cheese and the creaminess of the Greek yogurt, those herbs and just the right hint of garlic, taken all together, made my day.

My third recipe for this month was the Tomato and mozzarella risotto from the chapter (page 272) of „Pasta & Rice“ – although this recipe was a tad bit more involved, I loved making it. I started out with preparing the Roasted tomato sauce (page 366) in the morning – this is pretty much a no-brainer. Take lovely summer tomatoes, cut them in half, add garlic, thyme, and marjoram, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and pass the results through a sieve (or, in my case, a vintage food mill - always love an excuse to pull that lovely old kitchen utensil out of the cupboard). Measure about 300 ml and you are all set for the risotto.

Risotto rice is easy to come by and we all know how to prepare a risotto and are forewarned not to leave the kitchen whilst preparing a risotto which can be considered as somewhat of a difficult or moody side dish to prepare. Add your tomato sauce or passatadi pomodoro at the end, then add cubes of buffalo mozzarella for a real treat. If you love the creaminess of risotto and melted cheese in addition to the taste of a wonderful homemade herby passata – then this is a recipe for you.

For the fourth recipe, I chose the delightfully summery Leek and cheese toastie (page 202) from the chapter "Bready Things". Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall describes this leek-based, cheesy topping as „the simplest and most midweek-friendly“ of his leek toppings and right he is.

The delicious and easy topping consists of but a few ingredients, namely some good quality butter, sliced fresh leeks and fragrant thyme - cook gently for about 10 to 15 minutes and then all that is left to do is to stir in some double cream, simmer some more, fold in some grated cheese such as Cheddar, add sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, then toast a few slices of sourdough bread (or other bread that you prefer), spread with the still warm topping and top with more cheese, then grill until golden - pure midweek deliciousness if you ask my family and me.

Thyme grows in my garden, fresh leeks can be easily found locally, the bread is from my favorite bakery nearby and the cheese I used was Emmenthal. We were all more than pleased with this with its sweetness from the leeks, creaminess from the cheese and cream and just the right amount of woodsy herb flavor from the fresh thyme.

Again, this is like a different kind of bruschetta and Hugh´s recipe brings out the mild, sweet flavor that leeks have and showcases it so well. Make sure to use your favorite country-style, rustic bread like a lovely sourdough.

Onto recipe number five the Stuffed peppers with new potatoes, feta and pesto (page 349) from the chapter „Roast, Grill & Barbecue“. This is definitely a fun recipe - you could use different varieties of peppers here and use store-bought or homemade pesto, depending on your schedule.

I believe that it is a true pleasure to cook this Italian-style vegetarian dish of colorful stuffed peppers in late summer, when home-grown red peppers are at their sweetest. Just make sure to roast them for an adequate amount of time.

The somewhat unusual filling in Hugh´s recipe not only calls for cubed boiled new potatoes, but also for feta cheese and homemade pesto (page 256) – as we have eaten a lot of pesto lately, I decided to opt for a delightful Walnut tapenade instead. Good choice. This dish is a bit different and combines flavors that I would usually not serve in this combination but glad I did when I made it.

Recipe number six ranks as my personal favorite this month, the Aubergine and green bean curry (page 29) from the chapter of „Comfort Food & Feasts“.

The first step in this recipe requires you to make a curry paste of shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, green chilies, ground cumin, coriander and turmeric. What a fragrant paste. Next you fry the aubergine, then the curry paste. Add the aubergine to the warm curry paste, add homemade tomato sauce and coconut milk, then some French beans, and simmer until they are tender – which takes about 5 to 10 minutes. I decided to go with yellow string beans here as opposed to the ever present green variety at our house . I believe that the yellow ones are sweeter than the green ones which makes for a nice contrast in this somewhat spicy dish.

As a side dish, I served some lovely basmati rice with black and yellow sesame seeds and topped with fresh cress. And I put out a plate with fresh lime wedges for everyone.

This dish is a late summer/early autumn dish, richly flavored with just the right amount of heat – who would have thought that tomato sauce, coconut milk, spices, aubergines and French beans all put together can work their magic on your palate. No doubt in my mind that I will be making this dish again soon.

The recipe that I chose as my seventh one this month was the Cheat´s cauliflower cheese (page 378) from the chapter „Side Dishes“. Made individual portions for the kids in those cute mini cocottes and they loved it - a nice way to serve that cauliflower and flavorful enough. Definitely a nice variation of the traditional English "Cheddar cauliflower cheese gratin" and not as rich either. Serve it as an accompaniment to a main course or even with a seasonal salad and maybe some homemade bread and butter or steamed summer greens.

Onto number eight. The Summer garden lentils niçoise (page 237) from the chapter „ Store-cupboard suppers“. For the lentils I chose the french Le Puy lentils, a variety of lentils that I enjoy quite a bit – they have great flavor, wonderful color and they hold their shape so well after cooking and when mixed into a hearty salad like this one.

Flavorwise, this salad is basically a lentil salad dressed up as a salade niçoise – and true to „the original salade niçoise, apart from the lentils, you will need cooked French beans, shallots, black olives and cherry tomatoes – plus some soft-boiled eggs on top. If the yolks are still soft, they mix rather nicely with the mustardy vinaigrette – another immensely popular hearty salads at our house. We loved, loved this one and I know that it does keep well because I made way too much for us to eat in one session.

The last recipe I prepared from this month´s line-up was the Tomatoes with Thai dressing (page 121) from the chapter „Raw Assemblies“.

So. what´s not to love about a variety of the freshest tomatoes avaiblable (including zebra, yellow, orange and red cherry tomatoes and some beefsteak tomatoes from Belgium) – the dressing consists of chili, garlic, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, sesame oil and honey – to that I added freshly grated ginger – plus lots of chives (instead of the mint) and Italian parsley. Quite delightful.

In summary, another month full of wonderful vegetable dishes – this month we were delighted to enjoy a number of late summer recipes for lunch, dinner and, best of all, for relaxed al fresco dining. What can possibly be better than to cook with fresh ingredients at this time of year.

Please note, that for copyright reasons, we do NOT publish the recipes. If you enjoy the recipes in our series, hopefully, the wonderfully talented and enthusiastic members of The Cottage Cooking Club and their wonderful posts can convince you to get a copy of this lovely book. Better yet, do make sure to join us in this cooking adventure! There is still time!

To see how wonderful all the dishes from my fellow Cottage Cooking Club members turned out this month, please visit here. They would all appreciate a visit!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Kitchen Guerillas called Olaf Deharde and the brothers Onur and Koral Elci are a so-called "mobile kitchen unit" with roots in Istanbul and Hamburg. Since 2009, they have "hijacked and seized hold off" ships, restaurants, beer gardens, deserted premises, construction sites and the likes - all being rather unusual and unique spaces for a dining experience of a different kind. Just like they did last Thursday at the Gare du Neuss, a former railroad station.

The unparalleled success story of the Kitchen Guerilla began with meetings and dinners that the founders organized for family and friends in their own homes and kitchens. Today, the self-taught cooks have managed to turn their passion into their profession (don´t we all want to do just that?!). They share a common passion for delicious and high-quality food and ingredients with their guests and it is an important part of their philosophy to cook with local ingredients from producers and merchants that they personally know and appreciate.

The menu for the evening consisted of the following: a starter of rustic sourdough bread served with salmon, herb butter and fresh cress; followed by mini trout fish cakes with Frankfurt herb-mayo and a colorful salad; then salmon and mackerel ceviche with a side of panzanella; then organic prawn burgers; and incredibly delicious fresh cod in a beer batter accompanied by three kinds of delightfully crunchy vegetable chips (potato, sweet potato and red beet) and some more of that herb mayo; and as the grand finale we enjoyed a refreshing watermelon sorbet with basil pesto and cold pressed pistachio oil.

True to the delighful motto for the evening "Butter bei die Fische"- literally translated "butter to the fish" and meaning "get to the point!", the evening left nothing to be desired with all those amazing culinary creations by the Kitchen Guerilla as well as all that freshly taped beer.

The charming master brewer from the traditional Pilsner brewery who served all his guests in the Czech and English language and who was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the legendary brewery.

The dining table was decked in crisp white linen and was decorated with delightful recipe cards from the Kitchen Guerilla, as well as dried hops, colorful beer coasters, many a Weck jar and elegant white porcelain. Very harmonious.

There was a discernable cheerful atmosphere among the guests, attributable, no doubt, not only to the fabulous food and the rather copiously served Pilsner beer but also thanks to the unique location and ambience of the Gare du Neuss.

There were two kinds of Ceviche (a dish that originally hails from Peru) served alongside an Italian bread salad (panzanella). To my delight, those three dishes they were served in enamel bowls (almost identical to the ones I have at home).

Mix together the finely chopped fish and the onion and put them in a food processor, whiz together briefly.

Then place the fish mixture in a medium bowl and mix together wit the potato starch, wheat flour, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Then add the eggs and the milk and beat everything together until the mixture becomes light and fluffy

Add the melted butter to the fish mixture and place the bowl in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Form patties with the fish mixture and fry them in pan, on medium heat.

Keep the fish cakes warm while you prepare the rest and serve them alongside a herb mayo and a salad with a raspberry dressing (optional).

Friday, August 14, 2015

Oh, the joy of jelly – not only does it taste refreshing and wonderful, it might even get everyone around the table giggling. Few foods are as much fun to make and eat as jelly
And if you make your own Raspberry Fruit Jelly, you can turn it into a special treat by making Homemade Vanilla Custard Sauce to go with your fruit jellies and serve them alongside seasonal berries.

At this time of year, you can make fruit jellies with just about any fruits or berries that you like. The stone fruits, particularly peaches, nectarines and apricots, or berries such as strawberries, raspberries, red currants or black currants, or even citrus fruits like oranges, limes and lemons all are a great choice here.

You can create endless seasonal flavors and combinations. Whichever fruit you choose, take it easy on the sugar and pick your fruits wisely and remember that the acidity in berries like currants can affect the set, so a few more sheets of gelatine are required.

Personally, I prefer leaf or sheet gelatine rather than the powdered kind. Just soak the leaves in cold water for five minutes until they have softened, then lift the result out of the water and stir it into warm juice or a mixture of juice and wine. It really could not be easier.

Before you get started on your jelly making, you should choose your mold and measure it. First fill your mold with water and pour this water back into a measuring jug. Knowing the volume of liquid that you need to fill your mold allows you to calculate how much gelatine you will need. To get you started, here is a good rule of thumb: 1 leaf of gelatine sets 100ml or 3½ fl oz of liquid.

Put the gelatine sheets in a medium bowl and cover with cold water. Leave to soak for five minutes or until they soften. Turn them a couple of times to make sure they do not stick together.

Clean and pick over the fresh raspberries. Divide into 125 grams and 300 grams portions.

Take the 300 gram portion of the raspberries and place them in a medium sized pan.

Add the sugar to the pan together with the raspberries and on medium heat bring the raspberry mixture to a boil. Let the mixture bubble away happily for about five minutes.

Then take the raspberry mixture off the heat and press it through a fine mesh sieve (in order to get rid off all the pits).

Add the raspberry purée to a measuring cup and add the cherry juice – you will need a total of 500 ml.

Add the raspberry purée-juice mixture to a medium sauce pan and heat gently.

Squeeze the gelatine sheets to remove excess water and then add to the pan, stirring until it melts in to the liquid.

Fill your molds with the remaining 125 grams of fresh raspberries and and add the juice mixture – let cool and then transfer to the refrigerator for about 3 to 4 hours or until the fruit jellies have softly set.

Put the jelly molds into a basin of warm water until a little of the jelly around the edge has melted and then turn them out onto individual plates.

Just before serving, spoon over a little Homemade Vanilla Custard Sauce and serve some lovely fresh berries alongside.

Please remember when unmolding your fruit jellies, that depending on the thickness of the metal or plastic of your mold (s) and the temperature of the water, it can take between two seconds and 30 seconds for the jelly to release.

When you unmold directly onto your dessert plate, the jelly will stick to the surface wherever it lands. To prevent this, wet the plate before turning out the jelly. This allows you to reposition the jelly to the plate's center.
If you are serving jelly for a dinner party, you can unmold it in advance and leave it on its plate in the refrigerator, where it will keep quite happily for a few hours.

Jelly straight from the refrigerator will be thoroughly chilled. Remember that the flavor of anything cold is less prominent than something at room temperature. So when making jellies, the liquid you use must be slightly sweeter than you want it finally to taste.

I always make my fruit jellies the day I intend to eat them,
giving them a maximum of six hours in the fridge. Any longer, even overnight,
and they firm up just a little too much. You know what they say, as a rule of
thumb, „a jelly should quiver elegantly rather
than bounce“.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

For the last five years, a women´s team has been up against a men´s team in a stiff BBQ - championship. Each team is fighting for the tittle of "best national hobby BBQ king or queen" and both teams have carried the title home twice so far. This year, the finals will be held on October 10th in the lovely city of Hamburg - all as part of one the the largest food exhibition of Germany, called eat&style.

But before the final ten winners could be announced there were the preliminaries. Meaning that all sixteen semifinalists had to qualify for the finals in an event held at the lovely culinary school at Castle Schellenberg, in the wonderful city of Essen. This unique location allowed us to cook at the wonderful culinary school while at the same time marvel at the old castle that houses the school and enjoy the breathtaking surroundings.

The task for the sixteen semifinalists was to convince the jury of their own personal burger creations. To fulfill that task, the candidates were allowed 45 minutes and they had to use products from the two sponsors, Netto and THOMY.

To participate in the semifinals, I created an "ITALIAN SUMMER BURGER", inspired by the flavor combinations of the Sicilian Orange, fennel and red onion salad (Insalata di finocchi e arance).

The jury based their decision with respect to the winning burger recipes based on creativity, looks, and, of course, taste. The panel of judges was made up of the Sonja Beselin (head of the culinary school), Florian Schleinig from the Netto company and Carolin Cremer and Alexandra Weston from THOMY. In order to prepare the burger, each candidate had 30 minutes prior to the grilling time, giving them a chance to organize all their ingredients and get everything prepped for the bbq. At the end of the preliminaries, five women and five men had qualified themselves for the finals and be part of the the national bbq team. In the finals, both teams will try to win the title of best "national hobby BBQ king or queen 2015".

Cut off a slice of the whole head of garlic. Sprinkle with a bit of salt. Drizzle some olive oil over. First wrap in parchment paper, then wrap in aluminium foil. Put aside until ready for bbq.

Chicken & fennel

Pour some olive oil into two glass dishes (such as pie plates). Then add the zest and juice of one orange each to each dish. Then add a few crushed garlic cloves to the oil as well.

Pull the leaves off the thyme twigs and add them to a mortar, then add the whole peppercorns, the coarse sea salt, and the 2 tablespoons fennel seeds to the mortar as well and grind the spice mix in the mortar using your pestle. Add the spice mixture to the olive oil mixture, stir.

Clean your fennel, keep the fennel fronds for the sauce and slice the fennel as thinly as possible, making sure to get rid of the tough inner core as well as the tough outer leaves. Add the sliced fennel to one of the glass plates and cover.

Now cut the chicken breasts horizontally into very thin slices, making sure that you end up with two thin slices per person. Add the slices of chicken to the second glass plate and cover.

Red onions

Peel the red onions, cut the top and bottoms off and cut into thin slices as well.

Add the sliced onions to a medium sized glas bowl and add a bit of olive oil and salt, cover until ready to use.

Cheese

Cut the mozzarella in thin slices and set aside.

Orange-caper-sauce

To a medium sized glass bowl add about 125 ml mayo.

Then drain about 1 tbsp of capers, chop finely and add to the mayo together with the chopped fennel fronds, salt, freshly ground black pepper and some orange blossom honey to taste.

Finally add the zest of half an orange and some freshly squeezed orange juice. Taste and if necessary, add more seasoning or orange juice. Cover and place in the fridge.

Salad

Wash and dry your salad greens - this is best done using a salad spinner - keep cool until ready to serve.

First place the garlic package on the grill and leave it there for about thirty minutes.

Take the fennel slices out of the marinade, let the marinade drip off, place the slices on the bbq and grill until nice and tender, then take off the bbq and keep warm.

Place the onion slices on the grill and then finish them in a pan using the aceto balsamico and a bit of sugar. Keep warm.

Take the chicken slices out of the marinade, let the marinade drip off, place on the bbq and grill for just a few minutes on each side. Keep warm.

After 30 minutes, take the garlic package off the grill. Then carefully take it out of its package, let cool for a few minutes and squeeze the warm garlic into the sauce, making sure to discard the papery skins.

Cut the ciabatta rolls in half and spread the lower half of the buns generously with the orange-caper-sauce. Then add two slices of the grilled chicken, then two slices of the grilled fennel, then some of the balsamico onions, then a few slices of mozzarella and top it all off with fresh salad leaves. As a final touch, add the top of the ciabatta bun.

Considering that the male team was able to win last year, it would be nice for our women´s team to re-claim the title this year. It remains to be seen who will win this match - the decision will definitely be made in October.

For the finals, the candidates will have to cook up a storm and create a three-course-bbq-meal. We will have to convince a jury with a delicious, creative and attractive first, main and last course that we prepared together as a team on the bbq and I am looking seriously forward to that challenge!

The four winners of my online competition have been notified by email - thank you very much for your participation - your lovely price packages are on their way! And a big Thank You to the kind folks at THOMY that provided the wonderful gifts!

The Cottage Cooking Club "CCC" - My Online Cookbook Club

Food Revolution Ambassador Bonn (Germany)

foodies blog award 2013

thekitchenlioness @instagram

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